I am so sad right now. SOMEHOW I erased 5 days worth of writing when trying to transfer my journals from my notes app to here….
Sufficient to say I am heartbroken that all of that work is gone and Apple needs to include a history and past versions button like Google. Alas, here we are! It may be a shorter blog but I’ll try and remember the best parts of Week 6.
Day 36
Today was Aqueduct Day!! We woke up to the chickens at dawn but slept in until 6:30. Spooky and Gaspard were already gone by the time we left, so it was a lovely day hiking just the two of us!
We walked through some farms and a vineyard, and the sky was pretty and clear and the sun casting nice shadows. We made it to the aqueduct pretty quickly and hiked alongside it before turning to walk on it for a long looong time (about 15 miles) We didn’t eat much food for breakfast so we stopped about 4 miles in for a lovely break in the shade.
I was fortunate enough to have headphones – Noah doesn’t have any so he suffered pretty much all day. I listened to my audiobook – the second in the Red Rising series, and I think the pace of the book had me walking pretty slowly. I felt bad for Noah; guy was bored all day long.
Walking flat for the first 19 miles was truly so monotonous. I wished we were night hiking the whole day, but because the bad weather pushed us back we all didn’t want to continue with the mileage after coming into Hikertown.
We took a long lunch break under the bridge after the aqueduct ended – we were there with Grandma, Breeze, Gaspard and Max. I took a nap and drooled all over myself (this seems to be a common occurrence).
While we were packing up to finish the 5 miles, Oats came in crying :(. She wasn’t feeling well at all and was out of water and having a horrible day. I gave her water, a big hug and we told her to hop off trail to Tehachapi if she wasn’t feeling well. Gaspard and Max stayed with her and Noah and I headed out to do the last 5 miles.
Those last 5 were pretty but not super enjoyable because we had spent all day walking flat, only to end going straight uphill with wind pushing us over. The windmill farm started and was super cool but I was excited to get to camp. I pushed through the last bit uphill and came upon some really pretty flowers! That helped me get to camp.
When we got to camp (straight downhill from the up, my knee was so unhappy) we immediately set up at the first flat spot we found. We thought Spooky had gone ahead because we didn’t see him anywhere; however, he had written a note in the dirt that we missed. Once we were all set up, he came over and was like HELLO IVE BEEN WAITING ALL DAY FOR YOU!! I think we were too tired and ready for bed because we didn’t see any of it. He had also gotten to camp 4 hours before us! .
We ate and stretched and hung out, and our campsite was right next to a creek so it was a beautiful ending to our day. Noah and I had a lot of fun with each other here :). If I could do Aqueduct Day again, I’d do it as a night hike. Our friends behind us did it that way and it sounded like a much more fun experience!
Songs at the forefront – I could not tell you bc I lost all my writing :/ gonna be like that for the next 5 days it seems!
Day 37
We woke up at 6 today and wanted to get going but we had to filter water first. There was a cache about 7.5 in but that seemed unreliable. The next 7.5 were also straight uphill. Spooky immediately booked it and we took our time behind him. The trail was super sandy and ran through in places where dirt bikes had been ripping through. We climbed and climbed. We saw Gaspar take two shortcuts!! What a guy. I’m trying to make his trail name “Shortcut” but I think he hates it. Too bad- Gaspard, you are taking shortcuts!
We made it to the cache and it was a cute little spot with an umbrella and some extra food. We hung out there for almost an hour! It looked like a cute little kitchenette spot in the literal middle of nowhere.
We then began the longest part of the day. The next 8 miles of downhill was pretty. There were some very nice views of the mountains and the upcoming wind farm we are staying in tonight. It took a while but the flowers were so beautiful and I saw so many California fire poppies, the state flower!
We made it to the bottom where there was some water and WILD HORSES! I couldn’t believe my eyes. They were so beautiful and calm, it slowed me down and I felt excited for a rest. Spooky was feeling really hot so we laid down and shortly after some trail angels showed up! We talked with them and one of them (named Cliff) had been on trail and was now doing some magic after missing his family too much. They gave us oranges apples bananas and a PBR! We also learned from them that Legend was doing pancakes the next morning, which was super exciting because the last time we saw him was at mile 77. The timing was awful though as we had 8 miles to go in the morning for a ride at 8:30 and Legend doesn’t start until 6am. We made the hard decision to crank out 4 more miles to make our morning nicer. We also decided to cowboy camp so hopefully we see the stars!! The sunset is gorgeous and I’m excited to have a small pack up tomorrow.
Songs today- NONE BECAUSE WHO KNOWS WHAT THEY WERE! NOT ME🥲
Day 38
We woke up after cowboy camping to the sunrise over the wind farm. It was so beautiful, and I slept well too.
We had about 4 miles to go to the road where we had a bus lined up to take us. The bus ended up cancelling the stop without telling us!! We waited about 45 minutes past the pickup time which was pretty frustrating, but I got to talk to my bestie so I was in great spirits! We eventually got a trail angel to give us a ride into Tehachapi. Noah and I sat in the bed of the truck!
We had an incredible breakfast and headed over to the hotel afterwords. We were told we could try and check in at one but thankfully they let us keep our bags in the lobby. We had some time to kill so we went to Walmart which was an absolute blast! We got WAY too much food – lesson learned, never go for the cart. ONLY go for the basket, as you have to carry all that food on trail.
We got salad and ice cream and full resupply that could have lasted us 10 days. After that we got back to the room and started separating our food to lazily do our resupply. We had beers and we brought them over to hangout with Payload at their hotel!
Him and a few others were already in the pool and they had some Jameson to go around so we drank a bit and it was a lot of fun. We eventually made our way back to our hotel and laid down. We then went out to get pizza and it was SO good. We got some more beers of course and ate most of the pizza but had enough for leftovers!
We made our way back to the hotel and went to jump into our pool and jacuzzi. Payload and Max ended up coming over and that signaled Spooky to head back to the room. We stayed and had the last of the beers and went upstairs to pass out for the night!
No songs womp.
Day 39
We took a zero in Tehachapi!! It felt really nice to take a breather. We slept in, got breakfast and then laid in bed for a few more hours. What a treat!
We ate our bag salad (it was delicious, we got lettuce then added cucumber tomatoes avocado and bell peppers, then added caesar dressing. It was MUCH needed). Then we headed over to see Ben, Vivi and Pidgeon who had arrived to town! Jackson and Yeti were there too.
It was really nice catching up with Vivi. She’s my oldest trail friend so far and I miss her a lot!
We headed to the post office after which took much longer than expected due to our trail angel and it ended in NEW SHOES!! We have made new boot goofin our new personality.
After some more packing bag/resupply/double check every thing, we headed to The Great Wall for all you can eat chinese. IT WAS DELISH! I knew Noah was really excited about it so I’m glad we went and also enjoyed it so much! Maybe a little too much…
We stopped back in Walmart for some last minute things on our way back to the hotel. I got three Reese’s Fastbreak bars – they are so heavy.
Excited to get back on trail tomorrow!
Today I had the Goofy Movie soundtrack in my head – great movie.
Day 40
We woke up early and headed down for breakfast – hard boiled eggs!! I missed those.
Our angel was delayed in picking us up so we had a late start and long walk down the side of the highway (trail next to highway, mom!). From there we immediately went uphill for a very, very, very long time. I had so much water weight and WAY too much food, so it felt much harder, especially after a zero.
It was pretty beautiful, though. The weather was hot but bearable, and we all took a break near the top.
We continued on and my pack felt heavier and heavier with each step I’d take. We ended up at the end of the group, taking a long break to eat lunch (and a ton of spinach) and nap. I woke up feeling ready to tackle the last miles.
We made it to where everyone was camping and it looked like a tight squeeze. I wanted a bit more privacy with Noah so I continued on to look for a spot. We did another half mile to the first spot we could find, but we had to head back to the other sites to filter water. We brought our dinner and ate with everyone, stretched, filtered water and moved back to our site. It was nice to see the sunset and enjoy some time away from everyone with Noah. We needed it!
No songs again, no idea 🙁
Day 41
Oh man, another tough one. I think I only averaged 2 miles an hour today :/.
We had to carry out all our water because the next source was 20 miles away, where we planned to camp. HOWEVER, I 100% carried too much.
We left by 645 and did the first few miles alone. Spooky, Oats and Max caught up with us and we did another 5ish miles together, stopping twice to take breaks. At one point, I was in the front, and I could feel myself trying to go fast because of everyone behind me but my pack was killing me. I stopped off and continued at the back. I fell behind so far – I think part of it was the pace of the audiobook I was listening to. The rest of the day (12 miles) felt SOOOOOOO LONG. Noah stayed with me and we took a break with 8 miles left, eating and sleeping for an hour.
That last 8 miles was tough. I was feeling really down on myself – I didn’t feel strong at all and I just wanted to get to camp. We took a few breaks, celebrated 600 miles (!!!!), went through a horrible bit of climbing over logs and shit, then finally made it to camp. My favorite part of the day was the weather and the flowers. It was cloudy with some sun and a really nice breeze. There were so many fields of tiny white flowers, tiny yellow flowers, and tons of lupines. It’s really nice to watch spring in action out here😊.
While the last 4 miles sucked, Taylor got me through it. I sang 1989 to Noah and was back to my chipper self, joking about being down after 600 miles and the heaviest pack ever. We hung out with Spooky, Oats. Max and Gaspard and ate dinner and stretched. I hope tomorrow feels better than today!
Songs at the forefront of my mind: “Tides”-Flipturn and then I listened to an audiobook and 3 of Taylor Swifts albums hehe
Day 42
I had a really great day!! It rained on us twice and I still feel great about it!
Noah didn’t sleep well so we hit snooze for an hour and got up at 7. Everyone except Gaspard was gone, so we packed up and were on our way. Gaspard passed us, and that was the last we saw of him.
We woke up in the clouds but hiked out of them pretty quickly, finding ourselves in a beautiful forest. This part of the day was AWESOME. It was just Noah and I, being silly goofy and making jokes the whole way.
We left the forest and found ourselves in the desert again, and it started to rain. We threw our ponchos on and did the last 4 miles to the water cache (14 total). The last mile or so the rain stopped and we were able to enjoy a quick lunch and air out our wet stuff from the morning.
The clouds were darkening and rain was threatening so we packed up and continued on. It rained on us AGAIN, but this time it wasn’t as long or wet.
We decided to do 22 miles for the day, assuming everyone would be at the site we chose. The last 6 miles were tough. My shoulders were hurting from my heavy pack and we just wanted to see everyone. When we finally arrived, no one was there :(. We did another .3 to the top of the hill, but still no one. We called it there, set up camp and found some service! That cheered me up. I talked to two of my besties and saw the trek posted us on instagram! Slay.
We’re walking up early to try and catch everyone tomorrow. I hope we do. I feel left behind :/. That’s what happens when you sleep in!
Songs at the forefront of my mind: “Reason To Pretend”-Flipturn, “I2I”-The Goofy Movie Soundtrack (this song absolutely slaps), and “The Alchemy”-Taylor Swift
Week 4 had a zero so it was a great one! I’m excited about my new shoes and while my pack is super heavy, I’m happy to have so much food with me. I can eat as much of everything I want! The flowers in the desert are really starting to bloom and it brightens my day so much. The LA Aqueduct was pretty boring but we both don’t love the desert so it makes sense. I loved walking through the wind farms and cowboy camping the night before town! Oats had to take some time off trail because she wasn’t feeling well so it felt like doing it for her because she hasn’t had a tent since Jacinto due to losing the poles and stakes :/ Sergeant Pepper calls her a tough chick and I agree!
